The business world is changing. The internet and technology and all that coolness are to blame. Self-publishing professional looking material is now possible for any bloke with a laptop. The artist now has the means to be a business without selling the rights to his work to a middleman. The artist can be his own brand.
Local, small-time musicians are recording music digitally, and putting out albums with sound engineering that would have been impossible 20 years ago without a massive record label behind you.
Novelists are bypassing the publishing companies and selling directly (or through Amazon) to the readers, and making more money doing it.
Photographers can start up a business and a good looking website faster than you can say cheese without knowing a lick (a click? no that’s too cheezy) about how to do it.
The artist can sell his work himself and keep a much huger profit margin than ever before.
Oh shit. Wait. That was the catch. The artist has to sell…and he has to do it himself.
But Artists Hate Selling
I’ve known a hell of a lot of artists in my time, and yeah, they hate selling. I am an artist too, but at my day job I’m a salesman. I’ve found a good level of comfort selling projects that often cost $5K – $15K. But even with that experience backing me, selling my own art is a trial. It’s extremely difficult to charge what I’m worth.
It’s so tempting to find reasons to not charge that golden figure yet. I don’t have enough experience, I don’t have good enough equipment, no one’s heard of me yet, I’m not as good as ________.
Mindset is Absolutely Everything
When I walk in a customer’s home, measure their windows and quote them a $10,000 bid, I get nervous. Especially when that $10,000 only covers a couple windows and a patio door because they chose the most expensive line I have available. As I see the dollar amount adding up, I feel the consumer in me balking because I couldn’t and wouldn’t make that purchase.
I’ve had to learn that I am not that customer. It’s not right for me to project my own feelings and financial situation onto them. That customer chose to price out the most expensive line of windows either because they want the best and are willing to pay for it, or they have no idea what it’s going to cost them. Either way, my job as salesman is the same: to present the bid as what it truly is – the best product for the appropriate price.
If the customer wants fancy wood windows they have to pay what fancy wood windows are worth. If they only want to pay half of that, they have to choose a window line that’s worth half of that. It’s simple when it’s windows…sort of.
It’s more difficult when it’s your art, or your time.
The Value of Art is Subjective
It’s easy to determine the cost of a physical product. Wood windows with fancy bells and whistles cost 2-3 times as much as vinyl windows. Hence, we sell them for 2-3 times the amount of vinyl. Easy.
But what’s your art worth? What’s an hour of your time worth?
There are logical, mathematical methods of figuring that out, at least to a degree, and that’s worth doing when you go into business as an artist. It involves spreadsheets and math and other such things that make most artists go cross-eyed and search for the nearest bottle of whiskey.
The thing is, no matter how well you figure out what you should get paid for your time, all potential customers are going to reach their own conclusions of what you’re worth in a different way.
They’re going to look at your work and the single biggest factor in whether they want to hire you, or purchase your art is going to be how your art makes them feel. (I lied, there are some customers whose first and single biggest factor is price, but that’s another discussion…keep watch for it.)
Notice I said that’s a factor in whether they want to hire you, not if they decide to hire you. If they feel good about your art, then their mind will shift to price. Can they afford you?
This is the extremely difficult part. This is the part where artists get stuck and remain starving artists for the rest of their lives.
We don’t want to tell people who like our art “no.” We want to sell them wood windows for the price of vinyl because they made us feel good about our work. When you’re in that situation it’s hard to remember how much your art costs – in time, experience, effort, and investment of materials and training/education.
That’s why most artist don’t make enough money to take the issue of money off the table. The world’s artistry is drowning in a daily deluge of overdue bills and crappy hourly wages.
The Artist is a Shitty Salesman Because He’s Accepting the Wrong Form of Payment
We love it when people love our art. Adoration is a form of payment for the artist. We fall into the trap of trading our art for small hits of increased self-esteem. We find any excuse to cheapen our art for the nice person who likes it and makes us feel good, and we do it every time.
The result is an unsustainable lifestyle. If you want to make art full time, and only make art, you can’t sell it at discount rates. You’ll be forced into finding another way to spend 8-10 hours of your day so you can pay for your “hobby” (yeah, that’s what it is now, no longer a business), which can easily drain your best energies and inspiration. Or you can build a brilliant business model around your art that allows you to sell it for the cheap and still turn a profit. Got one? If not, we’re back to selling your art for what it’s really worth.
You should feel good about your art, but you shouldn’t have to peddle it for compliments. If your self esteem as an artist, your confidence in your art hinges on the words that other people say, you’re going to be a shitty salesman. You can accept Visa or Mastercard, but you can’t accept praise as payment.
It indicates a lack of self esteem. A lack of confidence in your art. Financial success as an independent artist is entirely dependent on how you value your art and yourself. You will get paid what you think you’re worth. You will get paid what you allow people to pay you. A sturdy self esteem will do more for your financial success and artistic success than a college degree.
Learn to Sell – It’s an Art
Don’t buy a new guitar, don’t attend another writer’s workshop, and don’t buy another camera lens. You’re not failing as a business because your work isn’t good enough. You’re failing because you’re not selling it the right way to the right people.
You need to learn how to sell. Selling is an art and a necessary skill in life…for everyone. It’s as important as knowing how to balance a checkbook or fill your car with gas.
You don’t have to be cheesy, or pushy, or make people uncomfortable. In fact, if you’re doing that you’re doing it wrong. When selling is done well, it’s as enjoyable as lunch with your best friend. I’m saying this with the weight of five years of experience selling projects that cost thousands of dollars a shot.
I’m also saying it as an artist. One who is not making a full time income off my art, but will be damned if I don’t make steady progress toward that goal starting right now.
Get a part time sales job, or read amazing blogs about selling with integrity. Take a class. Google it. Do what works for you – not what’s comfortable, but what really works.
You owe it to your art.
ps. You’re still wondering how the hell to sell right? You still have questions about this whole issue? Post them below, I’ve got more to say on all this, and you can expect it over the coming weeks. Likely the coming months and years. And really, if you didn’t click on that link above, go check out the best material I’ve read on business and selling effectively and ethically – the Heart of Business blog.
Conscious Me is now on Facebook.Visit the new page and add me as your friend!
Thanks,
Carlos
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Dude, I”m gonna retweet this lots. You’re now connecting with me in a way few of your previous articles have. (We can talk about that some other time).
You touch on something _critically_ important, something far too many people gloss over with glob remarks about “valuing yourself:” I agree we need set our value for what we think we’re worth.
But…
In the end, we worth what the market will actually pay us. Period.
Ugly, but true.
And I think that’s a good thing. It’s a reality check on our egos, if we’re only brave enough to face it.
And where the hell did Siddhartha run off to?
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Failure is a Point of View Who’s defining yours
[Reply]
Carlos Velez Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 3:38 PM
@Dave Doolin, Where the hell did Siddhartha run off to? Dude needs to chime in here.
Pricing yourself is a tough business. Julie and I are taking a certain approach to combat this. We priced photo sessions for our first two clients at a price that she was comfortable with, and we’re upping our price a notch, every other client, to a price that makes us a little bit uncomfortable. We’re going to keep doing that until we find our sweet spot where we’re getting paid well for the work we do and the experience we give.
As for our market, I’m going to talk about this more in the near future, but we’re going to tighten up our market, our niche, to funnel through clients that are as perfect for us as we are for them. We’re not looking to get every client, just the right ones.
The idea being that the right ones will be happy to pay the premium price we establish because we’re the perfect fit.
Carlos Velez´s last blog ..Artists at Heart- In Soul- and Out of our Minds
[Reply]
Dave Doolin Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 5:38 PM
@Carlos Velez, I really like the direction you’re going with this. Applied Woo and all that.
I suggest you – tastefully – add images of your best photos to visually support the Prewriting ebook.
Trust me, if I could draw, BPE would be chock full of drawings.
[Reply]
Siddhartha Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 11:40 PM
@Carlos Velez, This is a great question and one I’ve been pondering for a while—where IS Siddhartha?
But more to the point, how do we price our time? What is our art worth?
It’s both a function of what we think it’s worth and what people will pay. It’s little use to ask for a fortune when people are unwilling to pay it and self-defeating to ask too little when people will pay much more.
The economic answer is to find the equilibrium price. This is classically done with an auction. You can auction your art on eBay or simply have people bid for your services on your own site.
If it’s so easy why don’t more people do it? Because we don’t want to hear the answer.
We want to believe people value our time as much as we do so we’re unwilling to accept the answer they don’t.
Siddhartha´s last blog ..Six Reasons Business Leaders Must Understand Islamic Finance
[Reply]
Carlos Velez Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 1:12 AM
@Siddhartha, an auction? interesting. Yes, I suppose that does separate those who will from those who won’t (pay the big bucks). That really rubs wrong against my natural inclinations though. How could I offer up photography sessions as an auction? It seems cocky and dangerous. But maybe it’s bold and ingenius. (what’s the difference between genius and ingenius?) Siddhartha, where the eff do you come up with wacky ideas like “have an auction”?
Carlos Velez´s last blog ..Artists at Heart- In Soul- and Out of our Minds
I’m sitting here marvelling at the timing of life, the world and us little people in it because boy oh boy, if I don’t hear every word of what you’re saying. I’m great at selling other people’s stuff. (OK, so I don’t have the real-world experience you’ve got to back that statement up but I was always wonderful at selling raffle tickets if that counts?!) But I do love the warm fuzzy feelings when people like my stuff!
Looking forward to where you go from here to see what lessons I can pick up along the way and checking out that Heart of Business blog next. Thanks Carlos
Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..Perspective It all depends on where you’re standing
[Reply]
Carlos Velez Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 3:45 PM
@Eleanor Edwards, good move Eleanor, Heart of Business is some of the best content I’ve ever read on the nets.
Selling raffle tickets does certainly count! You were probably good at it because you believed it was for a good cause. You believed in “the product.” It was outside of yourself…there was a sense of detachment even if it was for a cause that was important to you.
Now think about how to take that mindset and apply it to your copy-writing business, or anything else you want to market yourself for.
Take all the compliments you can get, but store them away for a winter and find a different way to sustain yourself in the here and now. It’ll do wonders for your business, and for the respect you get from others. After all, we tend to get the most approval from others when we’re not dependent on it.
Go rock it Eleanor, because you are a gifted woman.
Carlos Velez´s last blog ..Artists at Heart- In Soul- and Out of our Minds
[Reply]
Eleanor Edwards Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 4:00 PM
@Carlos Velez, Having had time to think about it a little more, I suspect I was good at the raffle tickets because I have the gift of the gab. I sort of weave my magic and bingo
It’s been said I could sell sand to the Arabs and all the other over used clichés.
As for my own stuff, I’m getting better and a lot of that comes down to how I’m planning on selling myself. I’m going to take the ‘gift of the gab’ thing and apply it to my context and my stuff so it becomes less scary and sales like. It also helps that I’ve finally found my thing. But you know about that story already
Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..Perspective It all depends on where you’re standing
[Reply]
Carlos Velez Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 1:15 AM
@Eleanor Edwards, I’m willing to bet that what people are buying is you. I’ve said as much in my reasoning for giving a brick (or two). I gave because of you, not because of the charity itself. Your “gift of gab” is really a gift of you, methinks. That’s your special ticket, your wild card, your inside connection. You’re the only Eleanor Edwards I know. There’s a whole demographic of wacky people that’ll buy (literally) into who you are.
Carlos Velez´s last blog ..My Video Interview on Give A Brick
You are a genius, you have ingenious ideas.
I wish I could take credit for the auction idea but it’s a quite common way of determining the value of things whose value is difficult to ascertain. Even when the value is generally known, like a house, we hold auctions to see what people are actually willing to pay.
In the case of a house the owner makes the first bid at what they feel is the highest price people will pay for the property. People who make an offer start at the lowest price they think the owner will accept and bid it up from there.
It’s not an English auction (where people shout out bids and the price goes up), but it’s an auction nonetheless as buyers and seller work toward an equilibrium price.
The most common way of auctioning a service is to offer your service at several different price points with slightly different components. For example, $X for a bare bones photo shoot, $X+ for a standard shoot and 2($X) for the “Deluxe” package. While you are offering different services, you are essentially asking what the market thinks your services are worth.
Don’t make the services you offer too different because this will skew the results of the auction. The bare bones should be only slightly less inclusive than the standard such as only on weekday evenings. The deluxe package only slightly more valuable.
Another common way of auctioning services is to offer a discount for certain groups or on certain dates. By offering a variety of discounted prices you can determine if people are willing to pay for your services at any price (you can even hold a “giveaway” contest to see how many people want your services if they’re free).
By seeing how many people request your service at each discounted price you can get a good idea of what the market thinks your service is worth.
Just a few thoughts. I’ll be at Six Flags St. Louis all day so won’t be available to get back to you right away if you have any questions but I’ll be back online tonight.
(Six Flags had a special, everyone gets in for the child price if you print out an online coupon. Another way they auction their service.)
Siddhartha´s last blog ..Six Reasons Business Leaders Must Understand Islamic Finance
[Reply]
Thank you so much for writing this! It’s something I have always struggled with, and I really appreciate your insight. I am in the very early steps of building a creative business and have *vowed* to make it a sustainable business, meaning charging what I need to charge to make a living, pay rent, health insurance, etc. We’ll see how it goes – this article has definitely made me feel ever stronger – thanks!
-Kristen
Kristen´s last blog ..It’s DONE-
[Reply]
Carlos Velez Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 8:48 PM
@Kristen, good for you! It’s no easy thing to venture forth into business, especially as an artist. I’m struggling with it too.
We just got word from a client that we were supposed to meet with tomorrow to set up a senior photo shoot that her mom found someone else to do the shoot for them. The first thought was “Oh crap! Are we charging too much?” And there’s a good chance that the mom did in fact find someone cheaper. Well, that’s part of it. There’ll always be someone who will do it cheaper. We don’t want to get caught up in that game because it’s always a struggle.
It’s a topic I plan to talk more about here. I want to set our business up as one that is a premium service, a higher valued product and experience that people are willing – and excited – to pay a premium price for. I have beliefs about all this that are getting put to the test now, so hopefully it will make for valuable future posts.
Carlos Velez´s last blog ..Computer Crashes -amp Time to Think Lead to Great Change
[Reply]
Kristen Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 9:00 PM
@Carlos Velez, Thanks for the honesty – I can’t wait to read more posts! The info on this topic is very valuable.
-Kristen
Kristen´s last blog ..It’s DONE-
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